Web site critics, come on in!

[jjones]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: Zolty
I initially glance at it and the amount of white space and the ametureish quality to the design cause me to not trust it. Once you have content you may want to hire a designer.

If he made what is there, he can design it, just a matter of putting some more effort into it and doing things based on what people have been saying here.

I haven't spent nearly as much time on the overall design as I have on programming the admin and client backend. It's been a struggle for attention but ultimately the backend requirements have taken precedent over design. Now that we've officially launched and I've caught up on most of the pressing backend issues, I plan to spend more time refining the design and aesthetics.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: jjones
Yep, we'll be adding new features as time goes on, especially for the members. Keep in mind though that we can only publish what the client allows. It's doubtful that we'll ever be able to do price tracking, but the way internet travel shopping is evolving, many of our clients have Best Rate Guarantees, and the option to display that in the listing was just recently introduced.

Also, the client has the option to create a unique promo page and host it with us. There they can put in more details about the promo. For example, if you visit this page and click on the Aztec Inn or some of the others, you'll see an example of a promo page.

http://www.travelectory.com/regions/north_america/mexico/mazatlan/

Aha, that content is exactly what I'm talking about. If you can get more of that, that's excellent, otherwise maybe a basic summary of each company and just bare information that can be automatically generated for the rest? I'm not sure what's allowed, but pages like what the one for Aztec Inn are exactly what a person would like to see.

We encourage clients to use that feature but not all of them wish to do so. We even create those pages for the clients that request them. I agree with you and that's one of the things we'll try to expand on. Unfortunately, we're at the whim of the client on some of this stuff and even though they may want to do it, getting them to take action can be problematic at times, but we'll keep at it. We want this to be as user friendly as possible.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: Aluvus
The rounded bottom the the "cruises" box on the front page breaks in Opera. I would probably make it consistent with the box above it (either box rounded or both square). I would actually probably stick with normal 90-degree corners, but you may prefer the rounded look.

When I load the page for an area and see a listing of deals with the logo and prices on the left, some part of that left column needs to be a link. My instinct is to click on the logo (both because it's the attention-grabbing element, and because sites like PriceGrabber have conditioned me this way), but that doesn't do anything.

I'll look into the cruise box issue. That was actually something that was sort of forced into place at the last minute. The lower section was originally Last Minute Deals and Cruises but we pulled the last minute deals until we get further developed.

As for the logos, that was a recent addition done at the request of many of the clients. I briefly considered whether or not they should link but decided not to do it. For exactly the reason you mention is why I thought that maybe it should be a link. You've convinced me; I'll make it a link.

 

[tersome]

You should try try differentiate your site from the millions of spam pages with bogus links. A thumbnail or two for each item and something like a "featured listing" with in-depth info on the front page would definitely help keep people on your site. Also, the "Subscribe to this page" link sometimes drops down into two lines, but I think it's due to a rounding error in Firefox.

Other than that, it looks greate

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: tersome
You should try try differentiate your site from the millions of spam pages with bogus links. A thumbnail or two for each item and something like a "featured listing" with in-depth info on the front page would definitely help keep people on your site. Also, the "Subscribe to this page" link sometimes drops down into two lines, but I think it's due to a rounding error in Firefox.

Other than that, it looks greate

Thanks for the input.

I am actually planning on replacing the entire top section and placing featured content in that section. What's there right now is sort of an introduction and explanation of how to navigate. The one question I had in my mind though was, is the intro necessary?

Assuming you took an interested look at the site, would you know easily enough how to navigate around? How to use the directory?

It's been something that I've debated with myself over and over, but I don't have any real answers because I know what the directory is all about, so I can't look at it from the perspective of a first time visitor.